Friday, August 29, 2014

Yes, I haven’t been
posting much in the Downfall series lately.With Obama’s approval numbers stubbornly staying at or above
40% in spite of all his enormities, I’ve wondered what it could take for Obama
and allied Democrats to be stripped of their power. And at times I’ve also gotten rather discouraged about the
persistence of his support.Frankly, it still disturbs me.

But a poll I’ve read this
morning reveals that if one goes deeper into the numbers, revulsion against
Obama is at politically dangerous (for him) levels.Gallup has looked at the percentages of those who “strongly
approve” and “strongly disapprove” of Obama.Go look at the numbers for yourself.

What I find most
interesting is that while strong disapproval of Obama is only modestly higher
than in 2010, strong approval is much lower, from 27% in May 2010 to only 17%
now.Therefore, strong disapproval
of Obama roughly doubles strong approval.

Of course, the 2010
midterm elections were not good for
Obama.But these poll numbers are
significantly worse now before this November’s midterms, particularly since
those with a strong opinion about the sitting president are more likely to
vote.

Now this does not
guarantee a wave election turning Obama into a very lame duck (which I would
consider a Downfall, by the way).Congressional disapproval is remarkably high for one thing.But on that, one must remember that
said disapproval includes disapproval of the Democrat Senate and of Establishment
Republican Speaker Boehner’s weak approach to confronting Obama.Further, Republican Senate candidates
appear to be politically stronger than in 2010.And this time it is some of the Democrat Senate candidates
who appear off the deep end, e. g. Amanda Curtis in Montana, or have
foot-in-mouth disease, e. g. Bruce Braley in Iowa.

Still, leave it to
establishment Republicans to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.They have already so alienated the
conservative Republican base that the base is not nearly as enthusiastic about
voting as they could and should be.

But with 39% strongly
disapproving of Obama and only 17% strongly approving, a wave election may come
in November anyway.

-----

Downfall is an ongoing
series anticipating and tracking what I expect will be the
the possible self-destruction of Obama.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Yes,
those - those - JEWS have the gall to defend themselves!They do not just tolerate incoming
missiles and give away their land to enemies.No wonder there is a rise in anti-Semitism!

To the Editor:

Deborah
E. Lipstadt makes far too little of the relationship between Israel’s
policies in the West Bank and Gaza and growing anti-Semitism in Europe and
beyond.

The trend to which she
alludes parallels the carnage in Gaza over the last five years, not to mention
the perpetually stalled peace talks and the continuing occupation of the West
Bank.

As hope for a two-state
solution fades and Palestinian casualties continue to mount, the best antidote
to anti-Semitism would be for Israel’s patrons abroad to press the government
of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for final-status resolution to the
Palestinian question.

(Rev.) BRUCE M. SHIPMAN
Groton, Conn., Aug. 21, 2014

Yep,
anti-Semitism is Israel’s fault.Got it.

Anti-Semitism
always has its excuses.

The
Rev. Shipman is the Episcopalian Chaplain at Yale in case you could not tell
already.

I
am not known for having an especially high view of Democrats.But a YouGov poll shocked even me.So much so that I looked into the
innards of it and checked YouGov’s record of accuracy.And if there is something wrong with
said poll, I have not found it.

Yes,
yes, I know, on with it.The poll
that shocked me had 66% of Democrats approving of the indictment of Rick Perry.As I’ve mentioned, the
indictment is an outrage, raw political retaliation for Perry exercising his
legitimate veto power in a manner displeasing to the Democrat Travis County DA.Heck, it is Democrat retaliation for
Rick Perry being Rick Perry, a strong Texas Republican Governor.It is prosecutorial misconduct worthy
of the Soviet Union or Putin’s Russia.

But
about two-thirds of Democrats are fine with it.I can be charitable and assume that most of those two-thirds
are not informed enough to realize just what they are supporting.But this still indicates a tendency to
support abusing prosecutorial power to go after political opponents pretty much
because they are political opponents.These sort of people would fit in very well in the old
Soviet Union.

I
have never been a moral equivalency type.But the Obama years have really brought home to me that it is not o. k.
to be a Democrat, particularly since there is hardly any room left anymore in
that party for a traditional conservative Democrat. And the vast majority of Democrats still support Obama
in spite of his regime using the power of the Federal government, particularly
the IRS, to go after political opponents.The Rick Perry indictment is not the only case of Democrats supporting
the illegitimate use of raw government power to suppress political opposition.There really is something wrong with
Democrats, dangerously wrong.

Yes,
I can and should try to be decent to them and love them even, as Jesus commands.
Yes (in case you are wondering), I
still support their constitutional political rights, even as they greatly abuse
them and attack my rights.

Yes,
we all have something wrong with us – man is fallen and deeply flawed and
sinful.And it is wrong for me to
have a superior attitude, as I do at times to my shame, because my sinful
tendencies are different than someone else’s.And, yes, someone can be a good person while still have
areas that need working on like anger (mine), laziness, or being a Democrat.Wisdom is often to appreciate the good
qualities in people and overlook the shortcomings.

Those
of us engaged in politics, particularly Christians during such a divisive time
as this, need to remember the above lest we become downright noxious and harm
our relationships.

But
I refuse to pretend being a Democrat is o. k. any more than pretending that
anger, laziness, or any other sin is o. k.This poll confirms something really is wrong with Democrats.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

You may remember that the
Obama Administration, particularly his current IRS Commissioner, has done a
long song-and-dance that Lois Lerner’s e-mails were lost in a hard drive
crash.And – gosh, we’re sooooo
sorry – we cannot recover them.(Not to mention all the other perp’s hard drives that have crashed.)

'The Department of Justice attorney told the
Judicial Watch attorney on Friday.' Fitton said during a Monday afternoon Fox
News broadcast, 'that it turns out the federal government backs up
all computer records in case something terrible happens in Washington and there
is a catastrophe, so the government can continue operating.'

The catch, he added, is that the DOJ attorney also
claimed 'it would be too hard to go and get Lois Lerner's emails from that
backup system.'

The Justice Department is representing the federal
government in the lawsuit.

'So everything we've been hearing about scratched
hard drives, about missing emails of Lois Lerner, [and] other IRS officials,
other officials in the Obama administration,' Fitton told Fox, 'it's all been a
pack of malarkey.'

'They could get these records, but they don't want
to. And they haven't told anyone about it, frankly, until we were able to get
it out of them on Friday.'

'And there's no such thing as Lois Lerner's missing
e-mails,' he insisted. 'It's all been a big lie. They've been lying to the
courts, to the American people and to Congress.'

And this practically cries
out for indictments for Obstruction of Justice, if not Perjury, particularly of
said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

It
also begs the question of why is the Obama administration engaging in such
efforts to keep Lois Lerner’s e-mails from the courts and Congress, inviting
the wrath of both.I strongly
suspect her e-mails would damn the White House for being behind the IRS
targeting of conservatives.Why
else would the Obama regime take the risk of such a brazen cover-up?

Speaking
of cover-up, the IRS wiped out Lois Lerner’s Blackberry, which also contained
her e-mails.And that months after Congressional investigations of
IRS targeting began.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

… A number of Christian denominations have already
taken significant steps towards liberalizing their stances on homosexuality and
marriage, and the evidence so far seems to indicate that affirming
homosexuality is hardly a cure for membership woes. On the contrary, every
major American church that has taken steps towards liberalization of sexual
issues has seen a steep decline in membership.

I don’t want to steal
Alexander Griswold’s thunder, so do go read.He
summarizes what has happened to several denominations that are going full
rainbow.But his summary of
changes in North American Anglicanism particularly warms my heart.And to avoid unseemly gloating, I
better conclude with said summary:

In 2002, the number of baptized U.S. members of the
Episcopal Church stood at 2.32 million.By 2012, that number had fallen to 1.89 million, a decline of 18.4
percent. Meanwhile, attendance has fallen even more steeply. Average Sunday
attendance in its U.S. churches was 846,000 in 2002, but had fallen 24.4
percent by 2012 to only 640,000. Other signs of congregational liveliness have
fallen even further. Baptisms have fallen by 39.6 percent, and marriages have
fallen by 44.9 percent.

As for the ACNA? It’s seen its membership rise by 13
percent and its Sunday attendance rise by 16 percent in the past five years.
Since 2009, the ACNA has planted 488 new congregations. In 2012, the entire
Episcopal Church managed to plant four
new churches.

Ed Driscoll passes on a
perceptive summary of what is transpiring surrounding Ferguson, Missouri:

There seems to be a pattern: 1) unarmed young black
guy is shot, 2) there is a vast media outcry over the young “honor student’s”
death, 3) family provides photos of the dead guy taken when he was 11 years
old, well before he had opted for the ghetto thug look, 4) it comes out that
the “honor student” has been committing felonies, 5) witnesses say the honor
student was beating the hell out of the person who shot him, 6) Democrat
politicians call for the shooter’s conviction, and 7) prosecutors, fearing
rioting, black voters, or what have you, prosecute the shooter anyway.

Having closely watched the
Trayvon Martin case, there seems to be a pattern indeed.On no. 5, the reports I mentioned
yesterday that Michael Brown was severely beating the policeman have been
confirmed.

But that hasn’t kept Democrat
Governor Nixon from prejudging the case and (no. 6) calling for the policeman
to be prosecuted.As Thomas Sowell
notes,

On the eve of a grand jury’s being convened to go
through the facts and decide whether there should be a prosecution of the
policeman in this case, Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri has gone on television
to say that there should be a “vigorous prosecution.”

There was a time when elected officials avoided
commenting on pending legal processes, so as not to bias those processes. But
Governor Nixon apparently has no fear of poisoning the jury pool.

Eric Holder is on this,
too.And if you think he is doing
so for the sake of peace . . . well, you just go ahead and think that.But do consider that his people that he
has on this case have a well documented record of anti-police activism and
prosecutorial misconduct.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

In the aftermath of the
shooting of Michael Brown, there has been a lot of jumping to conclusions that
this is the case of a bad cop killing an innocent unarmed young Black man.Not to mention the portrayals of Brown
as a “gentle giant”, etc.

But then we saw footage of
him robbing a store and manhandling the owner just before the shooting.And then there were reports that he was
coming after the cop when he was shot.

And now there are reports
(which I am not in a position to confirm) that the cop sustained severe facial
injuries.It appears Brown smashed
the policeman’s eye socket.

The more that comes out,
the more the Bad Cop vs. Young Black Victim narrative seems not to be
applicable here.

Now I am not going to jump
to conclusions either.There are
conflicting versions out there of what happened.But the race-baiters should be
called out for jumping to conclusions and feeding the unrest in Ferguson.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Those who followed my twitter feed over the weekend know I can get a good rant on about the
indictment of Rick Perry.But I
will try to keep this to a readable length.As any number of good lawyers can tell you, the indictment
is absurd. The veto is part of a
Texas governor’s powers, and threatening a veto is part of expected political
give and take. One prosecutor has
even called out the prosecutor who talked a grand jury into the indictment:

The indictment against Perry is such a groundless,
utterly shameless criminalization of politics that the prosecutor, Michael
McCrum, and Travis County as a whole should be mercilessly mocked, insulted,
and made to feel the pain for supporting officials willing to run the criminal
justice system like a banana republic. Here is the letter that Patterico, an
prosecutor himself, sent to McCrum:

Mr. McCrum,

You should be deeply ashamed of
yourself. This prosecution is a joke. It is perhaps one of the most outrageous
abuses of power by a prosecutor I have heard of in years. I'm a prosecutor
myself - writing you on my own and not speaking for my office - and I just want
you to know that your actions tar good prosecutors everywhere. Thank God you
never became U.S. Attorney. I hope you lose quickly and are drummed out of
public life in disgrace.

Patrick Frey

Los Angeles

Even a number of left of center people have spoken out against this indictment.David Axelrod called it “pretty
sketchy.”Alan Dershowitz is
outraged by it.And Jonathan Chait even
wrote a piece entitled “This Indictment Of Rick Perry Is Unbelievably
Ridiculous”.

Which it is.But some Democrats still have no shame
and are cheerleading this travesty, namely scumbags Jim Messina and Joaquin Castro.

This indictment is part of
a pattern of Democrats engaging in bogus prosecutions to take down opponents.It is more worthy of Putin’s Russian
than of America.It also part of a
problem that transcends politics – the willingness of too many prosecutors to
indict for reasons other than justice and evidence.

Travis County, Texas, from
whence the Perry indictment comes, has a shameful history of being a part of
both patterns.I remember that
past Travis Co. DA Ronnie Earle’s indictment of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison
pretty much got thrown out of court.The trial lasted about 30 minutes with the judge instructing the jury to
give a directed verdict of Not Guilty.(I’ve never been a fan of Hutchison, by the way.)And Earle’s conviction of Tom Delay was
thrown out, but not after destroying Delay’s career.

As for the current Travis
County DA, she is a corrupt drunk, convicted of DWI. (She was three times the
level limit.) She should have been convicted of resisting arrest as well.The purported reason Perry was indicted
is he threatened to veto public integrity funds for her office if she did not
resign.She did not, and he did.

I thought vetoing funds to
corrupt partisan power-hungry drunks is good government.I guess to some Democrats, it is a
criminal offense.

Or is standing up to Obama
and running for the Republican nomination for President the real criminal
offense here?

“I’m not sure we can publish this book without the
Right using it to their ends,” Sarah Durand, a senior editor at Atria Books, a
division of Simon & Schuster, wrote in an email to one of the soldiers’
agents.

“[T]he Conservatives are all over Bergdahl and using
it against Obama,” Durand wrote, “and my concern is that this book will have
to become a kind of ‘Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’” — a reference to the
group behind a controversial book that raised questions about John Kerry’s
Vietnam War record in the midst of his 2004 presidential campaign. (Durand did
not respond to requests for comment. “We do not comment about our editorial
process,” said Paul Olsewski, vice president and director of publicity at
Atria.)

Lately, big publishing
houses have been whining about how the internet, particularly Amazon, has been
eroding their business.But after
decades of dealing with Big Publishing as an author, after seeing some of the
crap they do chose to publish, and after reading stories like this, my response
to said complaints from the publishing houses is . . .

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

The tragic death of Robin
Williams may prompt, as it does in me, the desire to pray for him even after
his demise.Is it appropriate to
do so?

I would say yes.God is not confined by time, nor by
life and death.So if we desire to
pray for the dead, it is good to do so with trust that God will answer with his
grace that transcends time and life and death.

Certainly, through the
centuries, a lot of questionable practices and beliefs have gotten attached to
prayers for the dead.But I still
think the instinct to pray for the dead is a good one and one which honors God’s
transcendence over what for us are the barriers of time and death.

In the case of Lois Lerner,
it is safe to assume that using the IRS, FEC, and God knows what else to attack
and muzzle Obama’s political opponents is being covered up.Have we become a Third World banana
republic?

And that is not the only
way Obama’s people are obstructing investigations.Forty-seven – that’s FORTY-SEVEN – Inspectors General have
signed a letter decrying Obama Regime obstruction of their access to Fed
records.The letter states:

Each of us strongly supports the principle that an
inspector general must have complete, unfiltered, and timely access to all
information and materials available to the agency that relate to that IG’s
oversight activities, without unreasonable administrative burdens. The
importance of this principle, which was codified by Congress in Section 6(a)(1)
of the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended (the IG Act), cannot be
overstated. Refusing, restricting, or delaying an IG's access to documents
leads to incomplete, inaccurate, or significantly delayed findings or
recommendations, which in turn may prevent the agency from promptly correcting
serious problems and deprive Congress of timely information regarding the
agency’s performance.

It is now clear that the
cover-up of Obama Regime criminality is systematic and cuts through numerous
Fed agencies.

But where are the
Democrats?Under Nixon, several
Republicans insisted that the truth be found out about his administration, and
it was Republicans dropping their support of him that prompted him to
resign.But today’s Democrats?

The question is, where are the Democrats in the face
of this obvious malfeasance?

During the Watergate scandal that brought down the
presidency of Richard Nixon, a few Republicans came forward and urged the
president to come clean. Yet, the silence is deafening from Democrats in both
the House and Senate in the wake of this obvious obstruction of the
congressional oversight function.

Where are the patriots on the Democratic side, who
are willing to stand up to an executive branch that has declared them
inconsequential?

The Democrats' partisan acquiescence to Obama's
declaration of war against congressional prerogatives sets the precedent that
future presidents can hardly be faulted for following. A precedent that makes a
mockery of the legislative branch and brings into question why we bother even
providing office space for Congress at all?

With 20 Obama officials from all over the government
losing critical emails, one wonders what, if any, is the threshold for
Democratic outrage?

When are the Democratic Party and their elected
officials going to put our nation ahead of partisanship?

If the past few years are any indication, I'm not
holding my breath.

Neither am I.But if Obama and his thugs finally get
the justice they deserve, the Democrats who were silent and even cheerleaded
the criminality (e. g. Demorat Senators Schumer, Franken, Tom Udall, Jeanne
Shaheen, and more urging IRS muzzling of conservatives) will deserve every bit
of the political fall-out and more.

Monday, August 04, 2014

Over the weekend, the
Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, Foley Beach, issued an excellent statement about ISIS genocide against Christians.I will let his statement speak for
itself.But I particularly
appreciate his calling out government and media leaders on their looking the
other way:

As Christians in the West, it is appalling how most
of our government leaders and the secular press have been silent. It is a
genocide and humanitarian crisis of the likes we have not seen since
WWII. We must not be silent!

I am also thankful that we
have an Archbishop who is not afraid of straight talk about the predations of
Islamonazis.

His statement in full
follows.

Greetings in the Name our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ! May God grant you the abundance of His Grace as you follow Him
day by day!

If you have been paying attention to what is
happening in the Middle East in recent months, you will note that those who are
Christians are being brutally murdered, women and girls raped and forced into
marriage, experiencing all kinds of torture, and hundreds of thousands have
been forced out of their homes and countries. We are seeing communities
who date to the 1st Century with their Christian presence being totally
annihilated and killed. Historic churches, holy sites, and tombs are
being completely destroyed - all in the name of Allah.

In Syria many of our brothers and sisters are
engulfed by an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Areas of Aleppo that are home to
around 400,000 Christians have been besieged and surrounded by the rebels for
months. Many Christians have become malnourished owing to shortages and
skyrocketing prices of food and other essentials. Access to water, electricity
and communications is very limited. Hundreds of thousands of other Syrians
have fled to Jordan where they are living in poverty and confined in tent
cities and cardboard homes.

In Iraq hundreds of thousands of believers have fled
their homes, reducing the Christian population to a quarter of the size it was
in 1990. Many took refuge in Syria or Lebanon, while others are internally
displaced in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, which once provided
relative peace and stability. But Iraqi Christian refugees are no longer safe
in Syria, as anti-Christian violence threatens all Christians in the country,
while Iraqi Kurdistan is now also seeing escalating tensions; Christians also
struggle to find work to support themselves there. Recent events in Mosul
have seen the city's Christian population totally exterminated by murder or the
evacuation of Christians. Pictures of heads of Christians hanging from
telephone wires, crucifixions, and other acts of brutality are heart-wrenching.

This brutality is being led by a group called the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Their goal is to reinstate
the Islamic caliphate and rule the whole of the Middle East and eventually the
world by Sharia Law. Their tactics are pure evil, and they will stop at nothing
to accomplish their purposes.

I am writing asking you to do several things.
As Christians in the West, it is appalling how most of our government leaders
and the secular press have been silent. It is a genocide and humanitarian
crisis of the likes we have not seen since WWII. We must not be silent!

1) Would you join me in prayer for our sisters and
brothers? Would you in your personal prayers and in the Prayers of the
People pray for those being persecuted, those doing the persecuting, and for a
solution? Would you pour out your heart in prayer and fasting before God
on their behalf? See attached prayers.

2) Would you call or write your government
representatives and ask them to do something to help the situation? They
will not attempt to help if they don't think you care. Right now, they
don't think you care.

3) The following ministries are engaged in helping
refugees. Please offer them your prayers and support.

•
Barnabas Fund -- "The mission of the Barnabas Fund is to support
Christians where they are in a minority and suffer discrimination, oppression and
persecution as a consequence of their faith."

•
Voice of Ishmael (via Commission to Every Nation) -- Bringing hope that changes
communities in the Middle East and North Africa.

•
Christ Church Jerusalem - Ministering to Refuges of the Crisis. Please write
"Iraqi refugees" in the memo line.

Please join me in interceding on behalf of our
Christian sisters and brothers.

Your brother at the Foot of the Cross,

The Most Rev. Foley Beach

Archbishop and Primate

Anglican Church in North America

Sample Prayers

Heavenly Father, we bring before you today the
people of Syria and Iraq, asking you to be their defender and help in their
time of need. Walk with them in their suffering and loss, and give them
strength to face the days ahead. We pray for release of the captives and
freedom for those held hostage. We pray for your intervention against the
violence and evil against your people. We pray for your provision for the
hungry, the homeless, and the bereaved. We pray for you to help your people who
are called by your Name, Jesus' Name, and it is in His Name we ask these
things. Amen.

From the Book of Common Prayer:

O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to
love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth: deliver them and us
from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand
reconciled before you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Edited from the Book of Common Prayer:

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of
the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off
and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and
find you, especially in Syria and Iraq; bring the nations into your fold; pour
out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Friday, August 01, 2014

I am hesitant to post on
this topic.First, I am in a fog
due to allergy medicine.Second, I
am having trouble finding information as to exactly what is going on.

But this is important
enough that my alert readers should be . . . alerted.There are reports that the IRS has struck a deal with an
atheist group to increase monitoring of pulpits for political content.

Perhaps one reason details are hard to come by is that the IRS is hiding them.In fact, the Alliance Defending Freedom
has filed a Freedom of Information request to find out the details.

Given the record of the
IRS, especially under Obama, there is every reason to distrust and watch them
on this closely.And if readers
find out more, please feel free to post in the comments.

I will say that there may be a good explanation from the
IRS.And Satan may be just misunderstood.